Drying apparatus



(No Model.)

S. G. PHILLIPS. DRYING APPARATUS.

No. 449,231. Patented Mar. 31, 18-91.

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30 of the building.

45 the bricks entering the apparatus.

SIMEON G. PHILLIPS, OF \VOODBRIDGE, NElV JERSEY.

DRYING APPARATUS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 449,231, dated March 31, 1891.

Application filed September 11,1890. Serial No. 864,684. (No model.)

State of New Jersey, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Drying Apparatus, of which the following is a specification.

The invention is intended more especially for drying bricks, and will be described as thus applied; but it maybe successfully used in drying lumber and various articles which can be similarly piled in open-work form on cars or analogous carriers. 1 traverse the r 5 material slowly through a building or large chamber, moving it either continuously orintermittently and subjecting it to lateral currents of air artificially warmed and peculiarly conditioned and economize the heat and induce uniform and just sufficiently rapid drying. Successfully drying bricks requires considerable time, as the surface is likely to check if it is hastened beyond a certain point. In what I esteem the most complete form of the invention there are a number of screw-fans urging the air laterally across the building and a number of narrow-gage railway-tracks provided with narrow cars or carriers traversed thereon in lines longitudinal A liberal current of air is taken in cold at one end and is warmed in part by the heat of the bricks which are about to be discharged, thus utilizing the heat and cooling the bricks. The air is further warmed 3 5 by steam-pipes arranged in the route and the 0 that the air shall traverse several times across,

returning above or below the drying-room. In the last part of its course no more heat is imparted to it, but the warmed air loaded with moisture is useful mainly in warming The air taken in cold and dry is discharged nearly as cold, but loaded with moisture. All the heat is utilized, and at no point is any of the ma terial dried so fast as to be injured. In or- 5 dinary conditions of the atmosphere it requires from a few hours to afew days to carry the material through the building or chamber.

The rate of travel on any particular track or on all the tracks should be controlled by the attendants as is found expedient under the conditions.

The accompanying drawings form a part of this specification and represent what I consider the best means of carrying out the invention.

Figure 1 is a horizontal section. Fig. 2 is an end elevation. Fig. 3 is a cross-section on the line a 00 in Fig. 1. Fig. 4 is an elevation of a portion on a larger scale.

Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in all the figures where they appear.

A is the building, which may be about seventy-five feet Tong and forty wide in a single room, except as hereinafter described. The top is formed by a partial ceiling A giving a nearly-uniform height ofsix feet or other convenient height. Seven narrow-gage railroad-tracks B extend in parallel and nearlyequally spaced lines the length of the interior, carrying single-deck or double-deck cars 3 of the style commonly used in drying bricks. It is especially important in my system that there be no sides or partial sides to these cars, and the bricks in being placed thereon should be piled to allow a circulation of air transversely across instead of longitudinally along the several loads. The piles of brick are arranged rectangularly, and extend upward so as to nearly touch the partial ceiling, and longitudinally so that each load nearly touches the corresponding rectangular load on the next car.

D D are screw-fans arranged in sets between the tracks and adapted to propel the air transversely to the track, allowing it to return through liberal passages provided above the ceiling or partial flooring A Convenient doors allow the cars on the several tracks to be entered and removed. The cars enter with their loads of freshly-made damp bricks at what I may, for example, assume to be the north end of the building, the upper side in Fig. 1, and are slowly traversed southwardly along the several tracks, the motion being usually intermittent, and may vary on the several tracks as the drying shall be found to require.

E are heating-pipes arranged between the tracks and kept filled with steam. I have in my experiments used mainly exhaust=steam fast as formed, so as to give as large a heat- 1 ing-surface as possible to warm the air at an early stage of its passage through the build ing across the several tracks and through the spaces in the several loads of bricks lying in its way. The steam-pipes E extend along the mid-length about half or two-thirds the length of the building. The end where the fresh loads of bricks are received being with.- out any heating means, the heat, previously stored in the damp air there being discharged is made use of to warm the fresh bricks, leaving the actual evaporation of the moisture from the bricks to be effected mainly at later stages in the traverse of the several loads of bricks through the building. The air traverses across and back several times, but each time it traverses the drying-room in the same direction, from left to right, returning, through liberal passages provided above, as indicated by the arrows in Fig. 3.

. The several screw-fans D are mounted on shafts arranged transversely and are driven by quarter-twist belts from lines of shafting above. The fans may be eitherright-ha'nded or left-handed screws, but rotated in such direction that the air will move across the tracks from left to right. The air is received cold and dry at one end of the building and grows rapidlywarm from two causes, the'circulating across-the several net-works of heat ing-pipes E, which present surfaces nearly up to steam heat, and, the circulating through the spaces between the hot bricks, which are now in the last stages of the drying operation v V V 'oughly and evenly to the several loads of and are about to be discharged from the building.

I esteem it important to utilize the heat in the bricks, and attain this in' a good degree andthus to take into the air a" good proportion of the heat inthose bricks before bringing the air in contact with the steam-pipes. To this end the steam-pipes do not extend quite to the hot endof the building. I have before stated that a considerable length of the other and cooler end of each track, that at which the air is received, is unprovided with heating-pipes. 7 short portion of this end, th'e'hot end of each, is also without heating means other'than' the loads of bricks which are standing there, and which give up their heat to the" current of freshly-inducted cold dry air being received". The drawings show whatI esteem about the best proportion.

The passage of air across in the spaces o'ver the tops of the loads and below the partial flooring is'reduced by screens exten ding down; I

ward a foot or more between the lines of ears at the ceiling. The passage of airacross un heat in the moisture-laden air.

I am now a'ddin'gth'a't a f pulleys ar -0111116 proper line-shafts M above tot-he pulleys 1) on the shafts of the screwfans D.

The liberal aperture in the side of the building througl'iwhich air is inducted is marked a. It may extend about one-third of the length of the building. A corresponding aperture a at the opposite corner serves for the exit. 7 v

The temperature at which the damp fresh bricks enter the building along the several 'tracksdepends on the season of the year and Various conditions, one important condition being the mode of their manufacture. While some greatly-compressed bricks come from the machine (not shown) and enter the building at a temperature as high as Fahrenheit, so that it is easy to raise them to 15Q Fahrenheit by steam heat alone, there 1s little need to utilize thelastincrements of Y There are other modes of manufacture, eminently what aretech'nical'ly known as mud bricks, which f deliver the bricks cold. There may be seven orany other considerable number of lines of cars, and the air is in all cases blown across through the spaces in the loads of cold bricks in each.

My invention presents the air very thorbri'c'ks and so as to dry them rapidly under favorable conditions, but not so rapidly as to cause the surfaces to check.- which first strikes the green bricks is warm, but damp. The damp compressed clay thus conditioned rises in temperaturesimply. As the bricks advance they begin to give off their moisture, meeting, or rather, being traversed laterally by currents of air successively drier as they advance, but always so conditioned that the surfacewill not check. Just before they emerge they are traversed by freshlyrec'eivd' cold air.

The air The apparatus requires for its proper man agem'ent but a small amount of skill or care, the adjustments being mainly automatic. The action of the screw-fans not only impels the air in the required direction, but also throws it into a great number of intermingling currents. The traversing across in this f manner is specially'adapted to dryfruits and any artiolesfor which the temperature should be moderate.

Modifications may be made without depart ing from the principle or sacrificing. the ad'- vantages of the invention. Instead of six IIO bricks.

screw-fans in each set Ican have a greater or less number. The drawings show partitions extending along parallel to the tracks with the screw-fans worked in apertures about the same size as the fans. The invention may be so worked, but it may be preferable in some cases to omit such longitudinal partitions and allow the air to move as freely as possible, simply aiding its general progress by the fans. I can work successfully by a single set or line of fans, or by any other number of lines with the fans, all impelling the air laterally in the same direction. The air may be returned in corresponding passages (or a sufficient chamber) below instead of above the main room (the drying-room) wherever the elevation of the building and the facilities for drainage, &c., will allow such arrangement. It is practicable to heat the air by other meansthan steam-pipeshot-air pipes, or smoke-fines, or any other suitable heating agent may be used.

The invention is not confined to drying It may be used with much advantage in drying lumber. The screw-fans may be driven by open belts instead of quartertwist belts, but such require a greater expenditure for counter-shafting.

I claim as my invention- 0 1. In a drying apparatus, the partial ceiling A heating-pipes E, and means, as the fan-wheels D, for inducing a current of air transversely under the ceiling in one direction and above the ceiling in another direction, advancinglongitudinally toward the end of the apparatus at which the air is discharged, substantially as herein specified.

2. In a drying apparatus, the partial ceiling A heatiug-pipes E, and means, as the fan-wheels D, for inducing a current of air transversely under the ceiling in one direction and above the ceiling in another direction, advancing longitudinally toward the end of the apparatus at which the air is discharged, in combination with means, as the tracks B and cars B',fortraversing the bricks longitudinally of the structure in the opposite direction and transversely to the motion of the air, the heating means being reduced where the air is received, so that it will be partly warmed by the heat in the outgoing bricks, all arranged for joint operation substantially as herein specified.

In testimony that I claim the invention above set forth I affix my signature in presence of two Witnesses.

SIMEON G. PHILLIPS.

Witnesses:

RICHARD SATTLER, JOHN QHMENHISER. 

